Master of Shadows
by ShiKuVeSiAquEn
Summary: Naruto takes his Shadow Clone Jutsu to the logical extreme. Full Usage of Kage Bunshin's potential. Eventual Strong!Naruto. Rated M to be safe.
1. Chapter 1: Best Jutsu Ever

**-Chapter 1-**

As soon as Naruto dispelled the army of Kage Bunshin he'd used to defeat that traitor Mizuki (overkill, really), he clutched his head in pain. Instantly, the memories, thoughts and experiences that the numerous clones had gathered from the one-sided battle came rushing to him in bits and pieces, all struggling to make themselves known, like an impatient answering machine. He hadn't noticed the new memories when he was practicing the Jutsu because he was heavily distracted with, well, getting it right. It'd been a hard jutsu to obtain and learn, and he'd needed to figure it out without reading the entire thing. He simply hadn't had the time. Even after he'd gotten it right, this was the first time he'd pushed as much chakra as he could into the technique, which was probably why he had made so many clones at once.

Through his pain, his eyes lit up with a spark of insight. During the battle, one of the clones had read the rest of the technique, which warned:

_Notice: Every Kage Bunshin is independent and has free will. Also, each, whether dispersed or destroyed, will return his/her memories to the owner instantly. It is not recommended to disperse multiple Kage Bunshin at once, as this can result in mental confusion and instability._

'_Whoa...so anything my clones learn, I can learn too? And they can learn different things at once...' _Naruto realized.

Suddenly, he wished he'd read that the first time. But it didn't matter. He could use this. He went over to the injured Iruka under a tree, excited, as his Sensei smiled weakly.

"Guess I overdid it a little, huh, Iruka-Sensei?" Naruto laughed nervously, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

Iruka stared at Naruto in awe and respect, contemplating. Exhausted, he motioned Naruto over. "...Come here."

******PpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz**

Naruto walked home late that night, feeling refreshed and free. He was finally going to be a ninja! After all this time! This was, after all, just one more step on his journey to becoming Hokage…

Naruto paused. Refreshed? He should feel tired. He'd just been through one of the roughest experiences of his life, and had somehow managed to learn an A-class jutsu. His eyes widened as a barely-looked-at memory rushed to the surface of his consciousness. _Another benefit of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is that each Bunshin will return their chakra to the original creator if dispersed and not destroyed._

Naruto blinked. Was this going to keep happening to him? He kept walking, absently weaving his way back to his apartment as he tried to catalogue what he'd learned and how to use it. _'Thinking about this is hard...already I can see that this can help my pranking a whole lot. And my training. But I need to sleep, and I won't have time to figure it out tomorrow.'_

In his apartment, lying in his bed, he could hardly sleep. His thoughts were still racing through the goals and dreams that he'd had since he was a child, and now he was getting closer and closer to them. He smiled to himself for a moment, made a quick seal for two Kage Bunshin, and was soon asleep.

Naruto One and Naruto Two looked at each other, then looked at their sleeping original, then looked back at each other, grinning. They were still alive. They could still exist while the real him slept. That saved them a lot of time.

Naruto One sat down on the shabby excuse for a couch while Naruto Two began to help himself to some ramen. Naruto One stared at him. "Oi! Don't eat all the food! We'll go through it in hours!"

Naruto Two shrugged sheepishly - he was boiling the water already. "We'll figure something out. Besides, I'm hungry. How are you _not_ hungry?"

Naruto One shrugged. He waited for Two to finish making his food, resisting the temptation himself, before getting an idea.

"Oroike no Jutsu!" Naruto Two turned back to the couch with his steaming ramen, expecting to find the other Naruto, but instead saw a girl.

"Call me Naruko. That'll make this, and future ... mes... easier," she said, with a mischievous smile. She was lying on the couch in the same orange jumpsuit Naruto always wore. Naruto could only stare as he sat down on his humble tabletop and slurped his ramen noisily.

"And just why should I do that? You are me, you know," Naruto mumbled through a mouthful of instant ramen.

Naruko rolled her eyes (something she was probably going to do a lot, later in life). "Because right after we're made as clones, we become different people. We're separate now, and we have our own thoughts and ideas. That's what free will means."

Naruto finished his ramen and looked at her oddly. "So every time I create a thousand mes, I create a thousand people?" It was an odd sensation for someone who was supposed to be another version of himself to figure out something faster than he did, but he didn't mind. Maybe she was smarter than him.

Naruko sighed. Was he always this stupid? "Well, yes. But since we get our clones' memories right afterward, it's not like we're killing them. It's more like we're … absorbing them."

Naruto sighed in relief. For a second there, he thought he'd become a mass murderer. But then something occurred to him. Something big. "So let me get this straight. Say I make a clone, and then I read a book. Then my clone reads a different book at the same time. When we're done, and that clone gets dispelled, does that mean I read two books at once?"

Naruko blinked. That was a leap of intuition she hadn't seen coming. "...Yeah. So if we make a thousand clones..."

"...We could read a thousand books. At the _same time_. Or prank the city. Or practice chakra control. Or work on Taijutsu. We could do _anything_, and a whole lot of it!"

Naruko was thinking - _fast. _Earlier that night, the original had learned an A-class jutsu in a few hours. If she made a hundred clones, and got more scrolls, could she learn 100 A-class jutsu in a day? As she thought of the possibilities her head spun.

Naruto was thinking along the same lines. But what would they do first? He looked down at the sleeping original. From what he understood, they had the entire night, and they could make a lot of clones.

"Naruko, let's make more of ourselves. Ideas will go around faster, and that means we'll have more time."

Naruko nodded briskly. "Right. But can we make four guys and four girls?"

Naruto looked at her, confused. "What? Why?"

She shrugged. "Being a girl isn't all that bad. Plus, variety. We're more likely to get different ideas from girls than we do guys. I've only been in this body for a few minutes, but I can already tell I'm thinking differently from you. "

He nodded and made a seal. "Ready?"

She did the same. "Ready."

Eight clones appeared in various parts of the apartment. One of the Narutos made a face. "It's gettin' kinda crowded in here."

A Naruko shrugged. "Deal with it. With our resources, we'll probably find another place to live anyway."

"Let's think about that later. I don't see why clones need someplace to live anyway. It's not like there's a point in us sleeping."

"So what do we need, and how do we get it?"

"Well, we need more Jutsu. If we can learn an A-rank that quickly with only one of us, there's no telling what we can learn with hundreds if we work at it. And weapons. And ideas for using this Jutsu. And ideas for transformation Jutsu."

One of the Narukos looked confused. "Transformation Jutsu? Why would we use that?"

A different Naruko pulled at her ponytail in thought. "Think about it. We can turn into anything if we know what it's made of, and now we have a lot of us. So say there's a hundred of us, and then we all turn into lions. Or bombs. Or birds. Or squirrels, or foxes, or rabbits. We could be anything."

A Naruto's eyes widened. "Whoa...why doesn't _everyone_ use this Jutsu? It's effin' _amazing_!"

The Naruko who created him narrowed her eyes. "Remind me to remind the original to ask the old man about that. Either we're missing something, or the shinobi world is full of idiots."

A couple Narutos nodded, while the rest furrowed their eyebrows. "Okay. How do we get Jutsu?"

Naruko!Two had a mischievous look on her face. "Remember the room where the forbidden scroll was?" The rest of them nodded. "Remember all the other ones that were there?"

Their eyes widened considerably while Naruto!Three visibly panicked. "But we can't just take them! People would find out, even if we got in and out safely!"

Naruko!Two smirked at him. "Remember how, when we made clones with the scroll on us, the scroll got made again too?"

Everyone in the room blinked. "You don't think..."

Naruko!Three stood up, took a scroll of half finished homework, and put it in her pocket. She then made a clone, who took out a copy of the same half finished homework. She grinned triumphantly as the clone she'd made dispelled herself.

Naruto!Three smiled. "So here's the plan." He looked at the Naruko who came up with the idea. "You sneak into the scroll room again. Make clones to make copies of everything, _and don't get caught. _The entire village freaked out already once today, we don't need them doing it again. I'll go with you, but I'll go to the ninja academy instead. There're probably scrolls there, too, and they're unguarded."

Naruko!Three smiled and stood up, ready to leave for the scroll room. "When we're done, we can come back here, or wherever everyone is meeting to drop off the copies to make copies of our own. Then we can look for unused weapons."

Naruto!Three frowned. "Unused weapons?"

Naruko!Three nodded. "When ninjas train, sometimes they don't pick up their kunai or shuriken, or they drop and forget things. We'll use clones to scour the village and pick up everything left behind for our own use, if we need anything."

Naruto!Three smiled. "Ok. We'll be the Collection Team. Move out."

"Wait!" A different Naruto, Naruto!Four, said. "We'll meet behind the Hokage Faces. Okay?"

They nodded before jumping out the window, leaving the eight of them to work out the rest.

"Wait, why are they going to meet us behind the Hokage Faces?" A Naruko said, confused. "I mean, why not here, or somewhere else?"

The Naruko who gave the suggestion, Naruko!Three, started rubbing her chin in contemplation. "Space. We're going to need a lot of space, especially if we're training with hundreds of us at a time. We should make another team for that. Our training will go much, much faster that way."

Naruko!Four raised her hand. "I volunteer. And you, the one who was just talking, you come with me."

Naruko!Three nodded. "We'll start training the techniques that we already know first, especially this one. If we can clone ourselves without anyone realizing, we'll be unstoppable."

The girl she was talking to nodded, and they jumped out the window in the same direction. The rest of them kept on thinking, until one Naruko piped up. "Even if we have a bunch of techniques, we need to figure out how we're going to use them."

"How do we do that?"

The Naruko chewed the inside of her cheek. "Form another team. The Tactics Team. They can direct the Training Team, tell them what to do and how to do it. Plan things out."

A different Naruto looked her. "I'll do it. You come, too. With this new Jutsu, we'll have a lot of work to do."

They nodded to each other and followed the Training Team out behind the Hokage Faces.

Four clones were left. They were sitting or standing silently in various positions, thinking. "We need ideas for everything we can transform into. This wasn't important before, but now that we have clones, we can mass everything. Maybe even have an information network," said a Naruto slowly.

A Naruko nodded. "Okay, perfect. You and I will do that, and maybe we should go to where the Tactics Team is. They'll need the information more than we will." That Naruto nodded back, and they went to join their counterparts.

The remaining boy and girl stared at the open window. It'd all been organized so quickly...and now there were probably hundreds of clones out there. They grinned at each other and high-fived. "Fuck yeah! If we keep this up, we'll be Hokage in no time!" Naruko!One yelled, probably louder than she should have.

Naruto!One smirked at her. "Well, we don't have anything else to do...We could help the others, but I doubt they'll need it. Wanna do some pranking?"

She laughed back. "You know it." And with that, they disappeared into the night.


	2. Chapter 2: Get used to it

**-CHAPTER 2-**

Naruto woke up blearily to a room filled with hushed voices and the inviting smell of ramen. He smiled when he remembered what had happened last night. Curious to see what had changed, he looked over the side of his bed and immediately noticed several differences that would have alarmed him had he not had an idea of what had happened.

The first was that his previously messy room, which used to be littered with scrolls and empty ramen cups scattered about haphazardly, was now spotless. The place looked as if it'd been cleaned only ten minutes ago, and there was a shine in his apartment that he couldn't recall seeing since...ever.

The second was a group of people, four girls and three guys, huddled next to a surprisingly large map of the continent pinned to his wall. They had plain, unassuming faces and unremarkable brown hair, and were clad in grey jumpsuits cut like his. All of them wore forehead protectors from each of the hidden villages, with the exception of a girl sitting on the couch watching the group. She had a silent air of authority, a very average face with small eyes and a bored expression, and a pair of oddly familiar gray goggles hung around her neck. Naruto looked back at the map and realized that the whole thing was annotated with detailed notes, footnotes, comments and diagrams, and that an even more written-on map of Konoha hung next to it.

The last thing he noticed was the steaming bowl of Ichiraku's on the table. Not sure if it was for him or someone else, he cleared his throat. The people in the room looked at him curiously before returning to their work, and the girl with the goggles blinked at him slowly. "Oh. You're awake. Just a moment." The girl made a clone of herself that dispersed right after being created. Assuming she had sent a message to someone, Naruto got up and made himself comfortable with the ramen. Hey, if no one else was eating it, it must be his.

He was barely ten seconds into his ramen when two people body flickered into his room through the open window and promptly sat down on the couch next to the girl who had spoken before. One was a girl with long blond hair, a soft well-rounded face, a white jumpsuit, and white goggles on her forehead. She smiled mischievously in a way that Naruto _almost_ recognized.

The other was a black guy with jet-black hair and blond tips, wearing a black jumpsuit and black goggles tied around his waist. He relaxed into the couch patiently, comfortably lounging and waiting for someone to speak. Naruto was about to ask what the hell they were doing on his couch when the blond girl piped up.

"Hi. I'm Luna. The guy next to me is Raiden, and the girl next to him is Uzumi. We're-"

"Just Rai, please."

The girl smirked at him, then turned back to Naruto. "Whatever. Do you want the long version or the short one?"

Naruto furrowed his brow. He figured if he thought hard enough, he could figure this out, but he didn't quite want to bother at the moment. "Short."

"We're you. Rai and I are the two clones you made last night, before you went to sleep. Uzumi is a clone we made later. We-"

"Wait. _What? _Why don't you look like me, then?"

Luna sighed and rolled her eyes. "Because that's confusing. And boring. And repetitive. We figured that at least the people who were leading the clones should look different from you, if only so we'll know who's leading what and why. It made things easier. A lot easier."

Naruto blinked. "But Uzumi looks just like her clones." He pointed out.

Rai snorted. "Yeah, but that's just a personal preference thing. Blend into your surroundings and all that. She's the leader of Infiltration."

"...So then how do they know she's the leader?"

Luna bounced impatiently. "The goggles, silly. Only leaders get a pair."

Naruto nodded slowly. This was _beginning_ to make sense, at least...

"...Okay...So you're all me...on the inside, at least?"

Luna crinkled her forehead in thought. "Technically. But I think, somewhere along the line, we decided that even acting like you is boring. I mean, as clones, we've been acting like you our entire lives! It's nice- refreshing I guess- to be someone else, if only for a short while. And even if we get poofed, you can bring us right back again from memory. It works out!" she said, with a bright smile and two thumbs up.

Rai spoke up. "But you don't have to make every clone distinct. Just around five of us, maybe a couple more. There are some people you have to meet. The other leaders."

Naruto still looked confused. "But why have you changed? And why have you changed so much? Is there something wrong with being me?"

Luna laughed and shook her head. "No, you're perfectly fine. It's just...there are a _thousand_ yous running around now. It's a little hard to be you- well, me- when there are a bunch of people running around being you. It got stale, so I decided to be someone else for a change. The me I am now."

Naruto tilted his head curiously. "Do you two lead anything?"

Rai shrugged casually. "No, we just make sure everything is running smoothly and look to "expand our horizons", as they say. We're the quickest thinkers, save for Rukona probably, and the ones to go to if there's a major problem or someone has an awesome idea."

"Rukona?"

Luna grimaced smugly. "The Tactics leader. She's behind the Hokage Faces, with Jack and Makima, the Training and Transformation leaders, respectively."

Naruto shook his head in confusion for a moment. "Okay, do me a favor and list all the teams you have already."

Luna counted off on her fingers. "Training, Pranking, Tactics, Infiltration, and Transformation. There used to be a Collection Team, but they got pretty much everything we needed as far as scrolls and weapons go last night, so we're not sure what to do with them."

Naruto pushed away the now-empty bowl of ramen and tipped the chair onto its back legs. "How about a Learning Team? We could have hundreds of us reading things in the library at once, starting with the restricted ninja library and working towards the useful information in the civilian ones."

The leaders blinked. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What, you guys didn't think about that?"

Luna spoke slowly. "We've been...heavily occupied. But that's a good idea. I'll send the message to Sunny right now."

"And Sunny is...the former head of the Collection Team?"

Luna grinned as she made a clone and dispelled it. "You're catching on."

Naruto paid attention as the message passed to everyone, but could tell that the message wasn't meant for him. Sometime in the night, they had figured out a way to attach priority to the information they sent when dispelled to targeted clones. The only thing left to do was develop real telepathy, but even the original could tell that was rather far off, even with hundreds of clones researching jutsu theory. He sighed.

"What have you been doing for food all this time? Clones have to eat, don't they?"

Rai scratched behind his head. "Remember that Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu that was in one of the scrolls we picked up?" Naruto nodded after spending a moment searching his now massive memory reserves. Apparently he had a lot of information sitting there, just waiting to be looked at. "We all spent a few minutes learning it. The people who made the jutsu assumed that the only reason someone would ever want to use so much chakra is to fight other people, but they were wrong. It's hard, but not impossible, to multiply inanimate objects indefinitely. So we did it with food. Specifically, cup ramen." He pointed at a bewildered Naruto. "You, my friend, could feed a village if you needed to, with your chakra reserves. Hell, with us as your clones you practically _are_ a hidden village, especially when we get stronger, the lot of us."

Naruto blinked. A scary thought occurred to him.

"Wait. Wait a second. How many clones of me are running around out there?"

Luna smirked confidently. "How many clones of you? None. It's a lot easier to get around the city and generally do stuff when you _don't _look like a demon container. Some of us are even small children or adults for Infiltration's purposes, and many of us are animals that we've already figured out. How many clones are there that are coming from you? Over a thousand. It's _amazing_, Naruto. We're _everywhere_."

Naruto glanced back at the map that a small part of the Infiltration Team was looking

at and balked as he realized that each forehead protector was meant to infiltrate said hidden village, and that the notes made were all secrets -of clans, people, even Konoha in its entirety. He almost panicked. This was a lot of information in only one person's hands.

Uzumi spoke up for the first time since her quiet morning greeting. "I like my job, and I'm good at it." she said tonelessly, still staring at different parts of the map, seemingly mentally sorting out information.

Rai spoke almost reverently. "Uzumi used the Transformation Team's ideas to large effect. The "Fly on the Wall" concept is no longer just a concept, and clones have infiltrated virtually every part of the city..."

Luna looked askance at Uzumi. "Except for one. But we're not quite sure what it is yet. ROOT."

Uzumi spoke like she was reading from a textbook. "ROOT _was_ an organization founded by one Shimura Danzo, but it was disbanded years ago. Supposedly. The more I bug him, and the people who report to him, the more I do not think that's the case."

Naruto sweatdropped heavily. So he was discovering covert operations in his sleep now? Great. He might as well just join Black Ops now. His eyes lit up at the thought. As a matter of fact...

"Hey," he said, getting Luna's and Rai's attention. "How much stronger have we gotten? With the training and tactics and stuff."

Rai laughed softly. "Much stronger. Having a few hundred clones constantly training on everything that could possibly be trained for hours on end will do that to a guy. We're still filling out holes, especially in your taijutsu and chakra control, but we're quickly getting past that. Go visit Jack and Rukona if you want details- they'll be happy to see you." Naruto nodded, smiling widely. Maybe ANBU Black Ops...then Hokage in a few years wasn't such a far off goal after all...

"But first!" Luna stood up. "You have to get your picture taken, remember? We've been talking long enough."

Naruto blinked, then rushed to put on his forever-orange jumpsuit and forehead protector. He'd _completely forgotten _that today was supposed to be the day he got his picture taken for his official ninja license. He was a flurry of activity as he made his bed (his clones made such an effort to keep the place clean, after all) and began to jump out the window.

Before he headed out the window, he looked around his room. The leaders were discussing something as the infiltration clones were noting and calculating distances and the limits of clone travel. He noted that it was getting kind of crowded in the tiny apartment.

'_I'm going to need a bigger place...' _He stored the thought in one of the rapidly growing "see later" files in his brain. Naruto body flickered out of the window, noting with pleasure that he could easily cross incredibly long distances with his chakra reserves.

******PpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz**

It was about an hour later when Naruto was handing the Hokage his picture personally. While going through the tedious process of finding a photographer and getting a picture taken and developed, he'd been thinking hard about recent developments. He'd gone through his memories methodically, checking up on the reports Luna and Rai had made clones write and memorize hourly for his convenience. Seeing those, he finally realized what he was doing, and just how big it was. It was with a light heart but a heavy mind he went to talk to the Hokage.

"Hey, old man...Can I ask you about something?"

The Hokage looked down at the boy. He loved him like a grandson, and could tell when he was troubled by something, which he obviously was. He figured it had to do with learning about the Kyuubi, and was prepared to vehemently deny his claims of being a demon if it came to it. "Yes, Naruto, what is it?"

Naruto hesitated. What should he ask first? "It's...it's about the Shadow Clone jutsu. Has anyone ever let their clones go free for a really long time?"

The Hokage looked at the boy, concerned. "No...The technique is chakra-intensive. It takes chakra to perform and sustain that jutsu, so anyone who uses it dispels his clones right after finishing. Why?"

Naruto wasn't about to tell him that his clones were running free. That would surely send the Hokage into a panic. Hundreds of pranksters? How would Konoha survive? He grinned inwardly at the thought.

"Well, I almost feel as if it's an incomplete technique." The Hokage blinked. "Has anyone ever tried to make clones that create their own chakra? Or clones that can take more than one hit? Or tried to create...you know...actual _people_?"

The old man stared incredulously at the boy and fished around for an answer. _'What is this child thinking...?_' "No...That would take either advanced sealwork or ingenious jutsu modification, and either way the chakra reserves required would be impossibly enormous. People -normal ninja I mean- simply don't have the strength for that. Besides, why would anyone ever need a shadow clone that lasts more than a few hours? It would be mentally exhausting and physically depleting."

Naruto noted that his mind was constantly compartmentalizing the influx of information from clones popping all over the country. If he closed his eyes and tried to receive everything that was coming in at once, the information became unbearable and he risked shutting down his brain. After the first time he'd dispelled a thousand clones at once, his subconscious had learned what to look at and what not to, so he didn't need to do it consciously. His massive and still growing reserves easily took care of the physical depletion problem as well. Naruto nodded to himself. He had his answers.

Naruto stood up slowly. "Old Man...Thank you." The Hokage's eyebrows shot up behind the brim of his hat. "You were there for me when no one else was, and you always wanted the best for me...Even if you did keep a few secrets. I want you to know that it wasn't in vain. I _AM_ going to be Hokage, and, after that, I _WILL_ bring peace to the shinobi world!" He turned around and walked out decisively and proudly, leaving behind a slightly baffled Hokage.

'_The fire in his eyes...That's a determination I've rarely seen.' _The Hokage puffed on his pipe and blew a smoke ring. _'Minato...You would be proud of your son. I am.' _Sarutobi chuckled softly, then glanced wryly at the mountain of paperwork teetering on the desk. He picked up the top packet and sighed in resignation.


	3. Ambition is Relative

**-CHAPTER 3-**

Naruto ran up the Hokage Faces gleefully to meet Jack and Rukona. Today was the best day of his life. He'd effectively found out that he had the potential to be the greatest ninja to ever live, and no one was the wiser but him. His options were limitless. If he wanted to learn something, he could send a hundred clones to read a hundred books on it in a day. If he needed to build a house, he could take up construction and do the construction himself in a week flat. His ninja skills were rapidly improving from the effort of his Training clones and his knowledge was growing exponentially as others read more and more books. It was as if, before today, he'd been going through an almost impossibly complicated, unfair video game that didn't give you any cool rewards for your hard work and had people hate you for no reason. Now he had the cheat codes. He'd found the game breaker and he was going to use it and smash the game to pieces so he could build a new one the way he liked it.

Become Hokage? Pffft. He could do that in a few years. But then what? Rule a peaceful village until someone decided to disrupt it again? Lead battles against some other hidden village in the inevitable Fourth Great Ninja War? Protect his people from other lands until the end of his life, only to die and have the ninja world continue on without him towards turmoil again?

No. If there was something Naruto had learned, even if he barely paid attention in history, it's that ninja have always fought. From the beginning of time, in both clans and hidden villages, there has always been conflict and war. With war came suffering, pain, and all the things people strove to avoid. He now understood that the villagers didn't hate him. They hated the suffering the Kyuubi had caused them so many years ago, the death and destruction that had wreaked havoc upon the village and impacted the lives of the young, old, and unborn. They just took all of that suffering and pointed it towards Naruto, thinking he was the embodiment of the cause of that pain, looking for petty revenge.

But revenge didn't fix things. It never has. Naruto knew that better than anyone, because villagers had been acting on "revenge" towards him his entire life. But what if there was someone, someone strong enough to unite the hidden villages, and the countries around them? What if someone who was strong enough to be Hokage made five or so copies of himself, with different bodies and personalities, and they became the Kages of other villages in order to unite the ninja world?

Naruto grinned inwardly. He had a plan. It would take time, patience, and a lot of hard work and maneuvering, but he had a plan. The shinobi world always existed in turmoil, death, self-destruction and pain, but he was going to save it.

The blond made a clone and dispelled it to tell the others of his new resolution and smiled. He knew they would agree with him. They were him, after all - in a way. He strode from the peak of the Hokage Faces to the training fields behind them. His eyebrows shot up at the scene.

There, in that wide open space, were hundreds of clones in dark green jumpsuits and a few in blue and purple. The dark green clones were clearly separated into four groups. One group was reading through taijutsu scrolls and sparring, another was reading through ninjutsu scrolls and trying out techniques, and another was sitting down and concentrating on each other. Every now and then, a clone passed out. Naruto presumed they were working on genjutsu. The last group was working on basic things like chakra control, replacement technique, and other things he should have learned at the academy.

The clones in blue were grouped over haphazardly- stacked sheets of paper in a corner of the field, watching the training and transformation clones every now and then before discussing and feverishly taking more notes. The clones in purple were practicing turning into various weapons, animals, and everyday objects while another took notes. The note-taker spotted Naruto watching and grinned widely. He started sprinting towards Naruto's vantage point, and Naruto noticed two other figures approaching, one at a jog, the other at a measured walk.

The clone in purple reached Naruto first. He straightened up and brushed his spiky long hair out of his eyes. His whiskers were gone. But the most noticeable thing about his were the goggles- one eyepiece was on his eye properly, and the other hung out on his forehead. How he managed to see straight was a mystery, much less keep them on while moving.

"Heyyyy! Boss-man! You're finally here, we've been waiting for you!" he exclaimed happily. Naruto just stared at him. The clone looked entirely unruffled. "Oh, okay, I'll explain. My name is Makima, and I'm the leader of the Transformation Team. These here-" the guy in green and the girl in blue caught up to them- "are Jack and Rukona. They're head of the Training and Tactics Teams respectively."

"Naruto, we need to talk." Jack interrupted. His hair was decidedly silver and he had a small beard tipping his elongated face. His goggles were wrapped around his left leg. He started lecturing in short, clipped tones. "As far as this Team training for you, we can take care of everything except for one thing. We can make you better at taijutsu because muscle memory is connected to the nerves, and nerves are connected to the brain. The clones are like one big brain, in that way, and we can transfer anything from brain to brain, including muscle memory. But we cannot make your body stronger. If you want to be stronger or faster, you have to train your muscles, and to do that efficiently you need weights. Specifically, you need chakra weights. They're weights that you can make heavier as you get used to their presence. You should get them. Now."

Naruto nodded back at him. He was relieved that the only training he had to do himself was muscle training. After all, he had unbelievable healing ability, and that meant his muscles healed a lot faster than most peoples' did after being torn. Why, he could probably increase his weights significantly once a day with the speed he'd get used to them!

Rukona glared at Jack. "You know, it'd be nice if I actually got to talk to the guy before he ran off and started being busy again," she said, annoyed. She had short, light blue hair and bangs that covered her left eye, and a remarkably sharp face. Her dark blue eyes were accented by the goggles hanging around her neck, the exact color of her hair; her visible eye was as sharp as her chin.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at them. So he had almost ten versions of himself running

things? He wasn't sure if he should be happy or if he should see a shrink. He decided, like always, on the first and brushed the worry away. "No, Jack's right. I should get those weights now. I'll have to constantly train my body until I'm lightning fast -at least the speed of a jonin without them on. I'll have to wear them heavy enough so that it'll seem like I'm the same speed, but really I'll be getting faster and faster."

Jack nodded while Rukona glared. Makima had other concerns. "So we got that message about you wanting to make clones who can sustain themselves and take a hit. Those'll take different Teams..." He began, rather hesitantly.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Well, seeing as you're the leader of the Transformation Team, you're gonna run out of ideas eventually. There are only so many useful things to turn into, after all. After that, you'll transfer over to lead Jutsu Creation and Seals. It'll probably take you a few days, but the faster you finish up with Transformation, the faster we can all start working towards our real goal."

Makima brightened considerably. He'd really wanted that job. Creativity was his strong point. "Thanks, boss-man."

"Don't call me that, it's weird. If anything, just call me Naruto." He had to admit, it was nice having a small army, but he didn't have to go _that _far with it. He frowned as a thought occurred to him. "...where's the Pranking Team?"

Rukona started to answer as Makima snickered. "Where do you think? Pranking. The leader is Toto. His small group of guerrilla warfare prankers wear black and white stripes."

"Like prisoners?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Isn't it appropriate?" Rukona raised her eyebrow. "Anyway. If you never see them, you know he and his team are doing their job correctly. If you hear rumors about some huge prank that was pulled off recently, you know they're doing an excellent job. I would leave him to it. It really takes off the heat from what the rest of us are trying to get done under ANBU's noses. You're being followed, by the way."

Naruto blinked. "What?" he said, a little too loudly, before looking around.

Rukona tugged at her bangs distractedly. "Yeah. Apparently, Uzumi discovered that ANBU has been tailing you for years. Well, there's that, and then there's..."

"...what? What else?"

"...Never mind. You'll figure it out soon enough." She rolled her eyes. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. His own clones kept secrets from him? How was that even possible? Naruto blinked again as he realized that it wasn't possible, and that if he searched well enough into his memory or dispelled Rukona he could find whatever it is that she was talking about. He didn't, though. Naruto liked surprises, and this one promised to be a doozy.

Naruto mentally shrugged as he started walking away. "Is that it then? ...Oh, wait. We need a bigger place. Like, a base of operations kind of thing. Any ideas?"

Makima laughed. "Don't you like, _own_ your entire apartment building? Why not take some clones to learn to renovate and then renovate the entire thing? You can even rent places out, seeing as the entire thing is empty and you're the landlord."

Naruto frowned. "But where would we get the materials? We don't have the money to renovate the entire thing."

Rukona smirked. "Yes, we do. If you buy a plank of wood and multiply it using the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu, you have a hundred planks of wood. If you need four buckets of paint, do the same thing with one. If you have enough money for one of something, you have enough money for a thousand of it. Even if you didn't, you could literally just make a thousand of something and sell it back to people for even more money. I suppose the only reason people don't use this constantly is because of chakra restraints which, luckily, we almost don't have."

Naruto's eyes brightened in happiness as he ran off to the weapons shop to get weights. "Thanks!" He called back as the clones got back to work. As he jumped off the Hokage Faces in freefall, he started to think that his clones might be more reliable than him. Then again, he mentally received anything they developed, so he was technically better than them put together. He almost absently adjusted his chakra to help him slide down the slope at a more reasonable rate. This was definitely going to be a lot of fun.

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Naruto still looked like himself as he walked into the weapons shop. He was dimly aware that the clones had found it easier to walk around, shop, and generally live without harassment when they changed into someone else, but he didn't care. Apparently the shops (save for Ichiraku Ramen, of course) had been charging him exorbitant prices for years without him knowing, and selling him crap products. He was pleased to remember that Toto planned to prank the hell out of the worst offenders.

Naruto stood in the entrance of the weapons shop in awe. It never ceased to amaze him, ever since he was a small child, just how many pointy things could exist in one place. It was a veritable armory. Naruto figured that it had to be. It did supply the weapons and equipment of an entire ninja village, after all. After taking a good minute to just stare at the prevalent sharpness and explosiveness of...well, everything, Naruto quickly made his way over to the weights section. Two arm weights, two leg weights, and a waist weight, all of them adjustable by chakra. He took them to the counter and started to get out his overstuffed wallet (he never really _bought_ anything other than cup ramen and milk) when he saw the face behind the counter.

A girl around his age wearing a pink qipao and two brown buns in her hair was ringing up his purchase. She had soft brown eyes and a cute round face. He recognized her, from dim, long-ago memories, and from new ones from some of the Observation clones. Her name was...

"...Tenten?" Naruto said aloud, almost on accident.

She looked rather startled. "Uh...Yeah? Do I know you?"

Naruto chuckled. "Ah, not yet, you don't. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I-"

Tenten snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "You used to be in my orphanage! When we were little kids! Where did you go? What happened to you?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I...kind of got kicked out."

Tenten gasped involuntarily. "But why? You were such a nice kid!"

Naruto shrugged. He knew by now that the person who ran the orphanage hated the Kyuubi, and, by extension, hated him. He figured he was going to have to play off the entire "I've got a demon sealed inside me" thing a lot. "Guess I caused a bit too much trouble. It's fine now, though. I'm in an apartment complex!"

Tenten looked down. "Really? I'm still at the orphanage...I mean. I'm a ninja now, so I'm trying to do enough missions to get my own room and stuff, which is why I'm working here, but it's really hard..."

Naruto looked at her carefully. He vaguely remembered Tenten as the one who couldn't stop going into the kitchen for the knives. Seeing her work in a weapons shop seemed perfectly appropriate. He knew from the clones watching the practice at day that she was a decent overall ninja and a rapidly developing weapons expert. But most importantly, she was a nice person. That was what mattered most.

"...Hey Tenten? You know how I said I lived in an apartment?" She nodded attentively. "Well, I sort of half-lied. I own the apartment building, and I'm thinking about doing renovations, which probably won't take more than a few days. After I'm done, you can move in with me." Her eyes widened considerably and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Nononono!" Naruto waved his hands in front of his face frantically. "That's not what I meant! I mean, move into one of the rooms. I'll charge a lot less than what normal people charge for apartment rooms. Hell, depending on how things go, I might let you move in for free."

Tenten blinked heavily as she stared at him in both hope and disbelief. "...You would do that? For me?"

Naruto laughed. "Hey, why not? If it would mean that much to you, why shouldn't I?"

Tenten squealed loudly before pulling Naruto in the first serious hug he'd ever gotten from a girl. He stood there dazed for a second before he hugged her back hesitantly, chuckling at her happiness. She let him go after a few comfortable seconds. "When can I come?"

Naruto shrugged again. "It should be just a few days. I'll get the, ah, renovators working on it immediately so you can move in as soon as possible. I'll find you to tell you when I'm ready. Sound good?"

Tenten raised her arms in celebration. "Awesome. Here are your weights, and thank you, Naruto. _So much_."

Naruto laughed as he put his weights on in front of her. "Hey, like I said: No problem. See you later, Tenten!" He then bolted out of the door, body flickering as soon as he crossed the threshold outside.


	4. The Good News Is

**-CHAPTER 4-**

Naruto realized he had one more place to visit before he could really say he knew his little network of clones like the back of his hand. He reluctantly body flickered in the direction of the Konoha library.

He walked in carefully. The librarian herself was about the only person who didn't hate him he could find there. She seemed wiser and sharper than most, and was kind to Naruto even though he rarely stepped foot in the place. When he walked in, a large number of people of all ages and sizes started staring at him openly and without restraint. Naruto was getting more and more nervous as other people noticed what was going on. And then, inexplicably, they smirked at him. As he passed by them, they went back to what they were reading.

Naruto let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and walked through the library curiously. Upon closer inspection, he realized a lot of people had taken out reference tomes of ninja- related records and history, chakra and jutsu theory books, weapons creation manuals, puppetry guides, poison courses, animal biology diagrams, calculations and a plethora of things that he would find useful as a ninja himself. The place was packed. It dawned on him.

_80% of the people here are my clones masquerading as students… _He thought, eyes wide. He sank to the floor and covered his mouth with his hand to keep from crying out in shock. The place was dead silent, after all. It was then, with his eyes bulging out of their sockets that he saw a blond girl with short pigtails and piercing, analytical eyes motion towards him from the other side of the library. As he strode towards her shakily, he could see that she was wearing a matching yellow jumpsuit and goggles. The goggles were less conspicuous than the others he'd seen, more like protective glasses than ninja gear. He followed her into one of the abandoned stacks where she pulled out a hefty tome and flipped to a page he couldn't see.

She started in low tones, quiet but urgent. "Hi there. My name is Sunny, and I have something to show you. You have to promise me, _promise me_, that you will not panic and you will not shout. It's just a theory, remember, but I think it's solid."

"Um. Yeah, okay, I think I can do that." Naruto whispered back. It couldn't be too bad, could it?

Sunny jumped right in. "You don't know who your parents are, right? Have you ever asked the Hokage?"

"No...He just told me I didn't have any and left it at that. If I pressed the matter further, he would get nervous or change the subject, so I just figured it made him uncomfortable."

"Ridiculous. I've personally read up on the seal that the Fourth Hokage used on you, from the Scroll of Sealing and other research, and it explicitly states that it has to be used on a newborn child to work. A _newborn _child. That means you were born the day it got sealed into you, and that you were immediately handed off to the Third Hokage, then the orphanage right after that."

Naruto dimly saw where this was heading. "Ok, but..."

"The Fourth Hokage wouldn't have sealed the most powerful demon on earth in some nameless, parentless child, so that means that your parents most certainly died in the attack. And if they died in the attack, they were ninja. There were no civilian casualties. With me so far?"

Naruto nodded uncertainly. "Right, but what are you getting at?"

"If they were ninja, the Third Hokage knew who they were, well enough that it would be impossible for him not to know that your mother was pregnant with you, especially if she was a ninja herself."

"Well, that narrows it down to the ninjas who died in the attack..."

"There's more. I examined the records and pictures of all the ninja in the village who died that day, male and female both, and there's only one ninja who comes even close to your appearance, especially your eyes and your hair. Have you ever seen a full color picture of the Fourth Hokage?"

"...What? No."

She flipped open the book to his face. In it was a color picture of Namikaze Minato, with bright, flowing blond hair and familiar- too familiar- blue eyes. He stared at the picture, then at Sunny, then at the picture again. "That's impossible."

Sunny grimaced. "Actually, if you put the pieces together, it's more possible than anything. You look like him. He sealed it into a child born that day, who became parent-less _that same day_. The Hokage, the person who most definitely would know about it, kept your identity a secret most likely to protect you from all the Iwa-nin who would want to kill you because of what your father did in the Third Great Ninja War. It makes sense, much more sense that he would seal it into his own son than into whoever was available, or some random baby born that day. Actually, I'm sure something happened that day. Nine-tails don't just appear out of the blue. Something went wrong, and at some point, I'm going to find out what it is. Meanwhile, you need to have another talk with the Hokage. Today."

"But if he's keeping it a secret from me, how will I-"

"Pressure him. If he knows you know, he'll give up the secret. Simple. Besides, if I'm wrong, you have nothing to lose. Sure, you'll look like an idiot, but hey, what's so different about that?" She giggled as he shot her a glare.

"Ugh. Fine, I'll ask him. But it's on your head if you're wrong!"

"And I'm the one who gets to live in the Namikaze estate if I'm right. Deal?"

"Deal."

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Naruto walked slowly and deliberately as he went to visit the Hokage Tower for the second time that day. He wasn't in a rush to get the Hokage's answer.  
>Naruto didn't believe Sunny. Of course, he <em>wanted <em>to believe her, but that was entirely different from actually believing her. He couldn't convince himself that he was the Fourth Hokage's son, because he would be just about the best father he could ask for. It would be ideal, and Naruto wasn't used to the ideal, just the horrible and unfortunate. Plus, it would mean he had quite the inheritance. The entire thing seemed too good to be true.

Naruto turned onto a detour to gain some more thinking time when a small child came up to him. Naruto liked children because they never seemed to hate him immediately like adults or some of his classmates. A couple kids avoided him, of course, but by themselves they were a pleasant change from the ritual stare-and-glare. "Hey, little guy. What's up?"

"You're being followed," the child said seriously. Naruto blinked at him. "You're being followed by Hyuuga Hinata, that weird girl in our class at school. Actually, she's been following you for a while, but right now is just the first chance we've gotten to tell you. She keeps blushing and denying it when we ask her about it, though."

Naruto stared at the child. _Okay, the Infiltration team is a little _too_ good at their job..._ He thought nervously. _Still, I should go talk to her. _"Where's she at?"

The 'kid' refrained from pointing. "6 o'clock, behind the tree with the broken branch. She's brilliant at hiding herself physically. It makes me wonder how long she's been doing this without you noticing." The kid ran off to his parents -well, "parents"- who waved at Naruto before walking off with their "son".

Once Naruto got over the fact that his clones really were the eyes and ears of the entire village, he turned around and spotted a lock of violet hair whipping behind a bush. Naruto sighed and walked towards it. It was in an abandoned training field, about 50 yards away. When he got to a few feet in front of the shrub, he stopped. "Hinata?...Hinata-chan...I see you..." He called out.

Hinata hesitated. She stepped out slowly, deliberately looking at the ground and pressing her fingers together. Her voice came out in a strangled squeak. "Um...I'm sorry..."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up. "Sorry? For what? ...I just wanted to know why you're following me." He smiled disarmingly.

Hinata blinked and looked away distractedly. She said something in a half-whisper. Naruto didn't manage to catch it.

"Sorry, what? I missed that."

"I wanted to see what you were like," she said, kneading her hands against each other.

"What I'm like?" Naruto asked in confusion. "I'm usually...Well, me. You didn't have to follow me around like that, you know. I don't bite. You could've just asked and we'd walk around."

Hinata shook her head ever-so-slightly and knitted her brows.

"But now you know. Now I can't-"

"Can't what?"

"See if you're really as nice all the time as you seem to be in the Academy," she finished, face beet-red.

"Why wouldn't I...?" Naruto trailed off thoughtfully and summoned up some of the things his intelligence network had learned. It turned out that the family was a bunch of repressive, cold-hearted bastards. Especially the father. He was colder than ice and the idea of 'fatherly love' hardly came into his definition of parenthood. In the many letters he exchanged with members of the head house, he called him daughter a failure and 'a worthless waste of space'. And he had made his opinions known.

Naruto's eyes widened in realization. _Hinata was wary of him._ She didn't seem to quite believe that a person could be nice just because they wanted to be. He remembered some of the reports one of the clones had read. There were plenty of examples of people extending civility for gain or political advantage, only to discard their 'friends' after they were done being useful. And Hinata had to grow up around that. She was probably so used to it that she considered it saddeningly normal.

Naruto was angry. He was angry at her family for letting her believe that feeling was weak and friendship was a tool. He was careful not to let it show, though.

He resolved to show her that people _could_ be nice just because. Plus, he liked her. She was smart, nice, and lonely. He didn't like it when he saw a lonely person. He'd felt it far too acutely before to let it passnow . He decided to be her friend.

He smiled brilliantly and grabbed her in a tight bearhug. He stood there, grinning goofily, as she stammered, "Wha-wha-what are you doing, Naruto?"

"Giving you a hug!" He let go and gave her a minute to breathe and compose herself.

He started walking at a slow pace and tugged her along gently. After a minute of nervous but companionable silence, he started talking.

"I want to get to know you better, Hinata, and you said you wanted to get to know me better too. I think it would be nice if you didn't have to follow me around. Why don't you come with me, then? Right now I'm going to go visit the Hokage. I have something I need to ask him, and it'd be nice if...if I had someone with me."

Hinata nodded vigorously, beet-red blush fading slightly. They walked several hundred more yards before she stopped suddenly in the middle of the street. Naruto glanced back at her, curious. She looked like she was steeling herself for something.

"N-Naruto! I-I wanted to tell you that...That- I want to be friends with you!"

Naruto grinned goofily and punched the air excitedly.

"I want to be friends with you too, Hinata!" He grabbed her in a tight hug and spun around.

When he let go she was smiling too, with only the barest traces of hesitation.

They walked along in silence. Naruto was happy that he had gained a good friend. Hinata smiled to herself.

As they walked into the administration building, the guards tried to stop Hinata but Naruto waved them off. They knew better than to stop him, even though he'd already been there earlier that day. They reached the Hokage's office.

Hinata closed the door behind her as Naruto walked to the center of the room and the Hokage gave him a glance of both questioning and recognition. Naruto gave him a sheepish grin as Hinata stopped slightly behind Naruto. Naruto stepped back so they were side to side. Hinata tried quietly to protest, but Naruto gave her a look and she faltered.

"So, Naruto...it's not that I don't enjoy your visits, seeing as they're an ample distraction from my tottering mountains of paperwork, but what is it that merits a second visit today?"

Naruto took a deep breath. He didn't see a tactful way to bring up the subject. "It's about my father."

The Hokage looked pained and tipped an eyebrow in Hinata's direction. "Naruto..." he started, warningly.

"Dont...Worry. About hinata. I trust her with my secrets."

The Hokage looked bothered nonetheless. "...Carry on."

Naruto glanced at Hinata who, after a moment of hesitation, nodded. "Was my father the Fourth Hokage?"

Hinata gasped involuntarily. The Hokage sighed visibly, and lit up his trademark pipe. He took a long drag, blowing smoke rings in the direction of the ceiling. After thirty seconds, he looked at Naruto intently. "Would you please keep it quiet?"

Naruto blinked hard before nodding slowly. He looked at Hinata's shocked face. She nodded briskly, clearly taking the news better than he had. Naruto turned back to the Hokage and stared, waiting.

"Your father's name was Namikaze Minato. He sealed the Kyuubi inside you, his first and only son, because he wanted you to become a hero and use it's power to protect Konoha. His wishes were...greatly ignored, as your identity as his son was kept a secret for your safety, and the accumulated bitterness of the village crashed down upon you. I am deeply sorry for the grief it has caused you. As the Hokage, I should have done a better job leading the people, and yourself, to greatness." Suddenly, the Hokage looked like the old man he was, face heavily lined with regret.

Naruto sighed. So it was true. He grinned widely after a moment or two. So that means..."What about the Namikaze estate? Is it mine?"

The Hokage looked taken aback. He expected joy from Naruto at learning about his distinguished parentage, or perhaps disdain aimed at himself for the mistake of trying to hide such a secret. He certainly did not expect him to immediately ask about the house.

"Technically, given your father's will, you already inherited it. I have the key with me, as well as instructions as to where everything is and how to access it. May I ask why...?"

Naruto fistpumped in his usual upbeat manner. "The scrolls inside, old man. My _very _awesome father had a _very _awesome library full of ridiculously _awesome _jutsu, scrolls of sealing, and other very awesome things. Plus, it's a house. Why wouldn't I be excited about it?"

Hinata giggled as the Hokage stared. "Well, here's the key, then. Please read the instructions...before you run off there by yourself?" he pleaded desperately.

Naruto smiled knowingly at him, and made a clone who immediately disappeared. The Hokage was about to ask what he was doing, but Naruto cut him off.

"Just wait for it, they'll be here in a minute." He turned to Hinata. "Do you want to explore the place yourself? I'm not going, but I'm sending some people to, and you can go if you're curious..."

Hinata blinked at him and shook her head. "Not if you're not going..." She pressed her fingers together awkwardly. Naruto looked faintly puzzled for a moment before he smiled at her. _I need to get used to the idea of 'I want to be with you, around you, near you, helping you, supporting you...' fast._

Naruto pondered for several seconds before he noticed two flies finally fly into the room from under the door. They landed on the Hokage's desk. The Hokage noticed and shooed them away. They flew off his desk next to Naruto before turning into a very smug Sunny and a bored looking Rai, with an accompanying 'poof' of smoke. The Hokage's pipe dropped out of his mouth and Hinata froze as Naruto started giving instructions.

"Ok, Sunny, you got me." She grinned proudly. "As promised, you will explore and inhabit the Namikaze estate with your team. Here is the key, have fun, give the Training and Tactics Team anything they feel is important and give Makima anything experimental. Deal?"

"Deal." She snatched the key away from him and bowed humorously to the Hokage. She pocketed the key and turned back into a fly, slipping underneath the door again. Naruto turned to Rai.

"Rai, I'm putting you in charge of renovation of the apartment building, and I need it to look wonderful in three days. Use any money you need to buy and multiply things, because apparently we get all of my father's money. Can you do that?"

Rai nodded. "Why did you promise it to her in three days, anyway? You could've waited a week."

Naruto hesitated, then sighed. "The orphanage is not a nice place to live, demon container or not. Besides, she seems nice. Get to it." Naruto slapped Rai companionably on the back and sent him on his way. Rai buzzed out the window, fly shape resumed, and disappeared.

The Hokage stared at him incredulously. "I'm almost hesitant to ask, but...Who were they, Naruto?"

He looked at his pseudo-grandfather with a smirk. "Just a couple of clones of mine. I'll be sure to explain it to you later, but right now there are a couple of things I need to finish..."

The man gave him a small resigned smile. "Of course, Naruto. I'm sure you'll make your father proud."

Naruto smirked."Heh. Proud? I think I can do even better. I'm going to surpass him." Naruto walked out of the office, tugging Hinata along at his side so they could walk together.


	5. Team7?

**-CHAPTER 5-**

That night, the two were eating at Ichiraku Ramen. They spent the afternoon training- Naruto with his muscle strength, and Hinata in her taijutsu, motivated by Naruto's enthusiasm.

Naruto's muscles ripped and tore repeatedly, but muscle aches and pains never took more than thirty minutes for him to heal anyway, so he increased his weights 4 times over the course of just the first few hours. He ate a lot during session breaks so he had the energy to repair himself and keep going, but he still had plenty of room for dinner.

Naruto assured Teuchi and Ayame that they were not on a date, but they ribbed him good-naturedly for it anyway. Hinata looked amused and quietly put in that she was happy to find someone to talk to, and Teuchi smiled at her and ruffled her hair. Naruto thought that out of the corner of his vision he saw Teuchi and Ayame exchange knowing glances when they thought they weren't looking.

As Naruto and Hinata walked home, he quickly realized that he needed to ask extended questions to get Hinata talking. If she could get away by responding with a shake of the head or a nod, she would. After a half-hour or so of probing, their conversation became more interesting, and it was with a reluctant heart that he reached home. They happily agreed to meet the next morning to walk to the academy together, as they both knew she used to follow him on the same path every morning anyway.

In his now-perpetually clean room, Naruto summoned all of his leaders to dispel and remake them. He would have to do this every night, as normal clones only lasted about 24 hours without any chakra replenishment. Makima's team was quickly researching a way to get them producing chakra on their own, and, hopefully, that would make them more durable as well. Rai went back to organizing the renovation of the apartment building. Luna was researching weapons on her own, Sunny was raiding the Namikaze estate along with an excited Makima, Jack was redirecting the training clones, and Rukona was creating more and more battle formations as the techniques and abilities they possessed increased exponentially. Uzumi was still busy in Naruto's room, keeping an eye on the entire village, and spreading her vision to beyond the Fire Country as soon as she was able. Toto was still, of course, distracting ANBU as much as physically possible, and succeeding. ANBU, ROOT, and Konoha as a whole would eventually catch on to Naruto's activities, but the later they did, the better.

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Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed as he sat down at his desk with yet another stack of paperwork to fill out or approve. He was highly aware of many things - as the ruler of a ninja village it was necessary, after all- , but the Genin being assigned their teams was foremost in his mind. As it were, today was the day that an entire generation of ninja would make or break it as the shields and swords of Konohagakure. How well they performed and who they performed with would affect the outcome of the overall shinobi force of the village.

It was early in the morning, too early for most people to be even up; for ninja it was just before the beginning of the first shift. Nobody had examined his paperwork before he picked it up- it was for his eyes only and the security protocol was very strict. He blinked as the top sheet began glowing blue. He froze for a moment, considering the risk of the situaton. Somehow, he intuitively knew that it would be harmless. After years of being on the receiving end of Naruto's pranks he could sense almost all the time when the unexpected happened whether or not Naruto was orchestrating another trick. This seemed like one of them. He was only partially unprepared when the stack of notes exploded into a cloud of smoke to reveal a yawning Naruto.

The Hokage froze rigid and almost called the guards before realizing that it was just Naruto and most likely one of his pranks. Nevertheless, he stared at the child. _...Did he just manage to perfectly infiltrate this building without anyone's knowledge? I should be surprised, but then again, he _did _steal the most heavily guarded Scroll of Sealing single-handedly..._ The Hokage sighed inwardly and grabbed the bridge of his nose. He could berate the youngster, but the Hokage had a feeling that it would fall on deaf ears, which he full well knew it would. "...How did you get in my office?"

Naruto shrugged. "Oh, well, you know the academy Transformation technique?" The Hokage nodded. "Well, it turns out that I wasn't taught right, and I ended up creating a technique that actually _transforms _you into whatever you're trying to be, instead of just being an illusion. Yesterday, I was going to ask you why everyone didn't use that, but I'm actually the only person who knows how to do it." He grinned at the now-baffled Hokage.

"That technique...would be at least _A-rank_, if not S-rank, for it's applications..."

The child waved it off. "Yeah, yeah, it's awesome, but that's not what I'm here to talk to you about."

"And why not? Konoha as a whole would benefit greatly from such a technique!"

Naruto gave the Hokage a hard look. "And it's just one of the things Konoha is going to have to live without, at least until I become Hokage. I'm not going to give away my creations like they're coupons. Ninjas stay ahead. Besides, if I were to start teaching people this technique, the entire ninja world would go insane from the rapid changes in battle."

"Well, then, Naruto...why are you here?" The Hokage asked, settling back down into patience.

The child continued stretching in his customary orange jumpsuit before making a comfortable chair appear out of nowhere and crossing his legs. "I have a request for you."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "A request?"

"A simple request. You see, I am fully aware of today being the day where Genin are assigned into teams and Jonin become their teachers. Not only that, I am also aware of what teams each Genin is assigned to, and which Jonin in particular are assigned to each team."

"That's classified information! How did you-?"

Naruto gave him one of his signature bored looks, the kind that was tailored to be both devil-may-care and nonchalant.

"So it is. Eyes and ears everywhere, in more ways than one, but only for good reasons, I promise you. I would like you to switch me with Kiba."

The Hokage buried his face in both hands and exhaled slowly. Never mind the fact that Naruto wasn't supposed to know this, any of this, but now he was asking for a change?

"You know I can't do that. The Genin are decided by grades, equalizing each squad. You got the worst overall grades, Sasuke got the best, and Sakura got right in the middle. It's fair."

"You're kidding, right? You're going to tell me that Ino-Shika-Cho, or Kurenai's Team Ten got chosen by grades? That it's just a coincidence that the legendary formation just _happens _to be together, and that the other three happen to have wonderful potential as a recon. team?" The Hokage blanched "Look, I was there when they chose the teams yesterday, okay? Not me specifically, but a clone of mine. Hell, I'm a clone. The real me is sleeping right now, hoping that when he wakes up, you'll have listened to me."

"Clones don't dispel when the user falls asleep?" The Hokage asked tangentially, still trying to process Naruto's point.

Naruto laughed openly. "Old man, there are a lot of things clones can do that you don't know about. But that's not the point. I saw those Jonin handpick the teams, and I saw everyone's aversion to picking me. I know the only reason Kakashi is OK with me is because I look like my father, and the only reason he got Sasuke was because of his potential Sharingan. I know all of this, but I think it's crap. Sasuke avoids Sakura like the plague because she's obsessed with him, and Sakura hates me because I used to be obsessed with her before I actually met someone who cared about me. The team would be _utterly dysfunctional_. Sasuke would work harder at ignoring us than at training, Sakura would work harder at seducing Sasuke than learning about anything actually useful, and I would thoroughly annoy the both of them with my simple existence. It wouldn't work!" By the end of his short tirade, Naruto was standing and panting heavily, irate that the Jonin would even _think _about putting them on a team together, and even more disappointed that the Hokage would let it go through.

The Hokage stared at the child. He sighed deeply and lit up his first pipe of the day. The problem with what Naruto was sugesting was that he had no right contesting his squad placement. He was still a Genin- not even a Genin- and his opinion didn't matter. The other problem was that Naruto had a point. He leaned back in his chair. "So what do you suggest? I cannot make any promises, as you were a late addition and most of the other teams had been already formed, but I can try."

Naruto snorted. "You're the Hokage, old man. You don't try, you do. I suggest you switch me with Kiba. Seeing as my clones can turn into any animal in the first place, I'll be a much better sensor than Kiba will ever be anyway. It won't solve Sakura and Sasuke's problems, but it won't make them worse, either. The former doesn't take being a ninja seriously, and the latter is pathologically unhealthy, anyway. You start switching them around, and things start to get...complicated."

The Hokage paused. "I will...consider it."

Naruto grimaced as he sat down again. "I have the feeling it won't matter much. Give me one month, a month and a half, and I'll be applying to ANBU Black Ops. It won't do later on to have a Genin who can take on their sensei."

The Hokage blinked at him torn between amusement and outrage. "Do you have any idea what you're saying?"

"I'm completely aware of it. If you don't believe me, well, wait for it. I'll be Chunin-level at the end of two weeks, a Jonin in another two weeks, and strong enough to prove my claim in another two. It won't take long." Naruto stood up slowly as the chair he'd made exploded into a cloud of smoke. Naruto shook his head distractedly. "Whoa...Sitting on myself is weird. Anyway. Even if you don't listen to me, I can always demand that Iruka-Sensei let me take the Genin test again and get a perfect score. Your standards are hella low, you know that? No offense, but the school needs some work. _Especially_ in applications training. Later." The clone vanished. Whether it had been dispelled or it turned into a bug, the Hokage couldn't be sure. It didn't matter anyway. Naruto knew everything.

_'ANBU in a month and a half, huh...? If that's actually true, maybe he'll be quick enough to take my place...'_

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed at the thought before turning to his morning work.

_'And now I will never be quite certain that my paperwork is not spying on me...'_

******PpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz**

Hinata woke up, but didn't open her eyes. She wanted to stay in bed. She wanted to continue having the longest dream of her life, where she'd finally found a friend in Naruto and spent a stress-free day training without the pressures of cold eyes on her back. She wanted to dream again, to be in a world where Naruto promised to meet her in the morning and they would walk to school together, talking about nothing in particular, not because she could drop something in conversation that would reach her father's ears, but because they were comfortable in each others' presence. She wanted that world. Why did reality have to even exist? Why couldn't she keep dreaming that Naruto cared about her well-being? She curled into herself before feeling a slight poke on her shoulder.

"Hinata. Hinata-chan," someone whispered, poking insistently. Hinata's eyes shot open to meet a pair of bright, blue ones staring right back at her. Naruto was in her room. Sitting on her bed. She turned red and jerked the covers so hard up to her chin that Naruto slipped off the bed and onto the floor. Was she still dreaming?

"Good morning, Hinata-chan." Naruto smiled. "I'm here to remind you to meet me at my place. Not that I think you'd forget, but I think you would worry the entire time whether or not I was serious. Well, I'm serious. See ya!"

Before the obvious clone could dispel himself, Hinata jumped up and hugged him as tightly as she could. He felt, sounded, smelled and looked real. She restrained herself with difficulty from poking his face to feel if the slight furrows where his whiskers were really were there. She'd just have to believe him, for now.

"I'll meet you there!" She said, uncharacteristically cheerful.

Naruto grinned and hugged her as tightly as she hugged him.

"You'll always be welcome. Now get ready. You're going to be late." The clone dispelled himself, to Hinata's great dismay. Then she perked up again as she realized she'd be seeing him shortly. She literally jumped out of bed for the first time in her life and proceeded to get ready for the day.

******PpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz**

Naruto was already up and eating, skimming various reports left throughout the night by an ever-growing army of clones. Luna had spent the entire night learning to use wind chakra, as they'd found out that was her affinity earlier that day. Rai was still managing the renovation of the apartment building, which would be done by that day's afternoon, but was simultaneously practicing what he called "The Flying Thunder God Replacement Technique".

Sunny and Makima personally went through the entire Namikaze estate to learn that there was no record of his father's most famous jutsu. There were multiple scrolls, seals, seal theory books and jutsu manuals to be found, things that the two of them had intellectually inhaled.

Makima immediately made new Teams- pink jumpsuits for Jutsu Creation and blood red for Seals. He was in charge of both because of his creativity. He was almost out of ideas for Transformation, so it wouldn't be much of an extra burden to add to his project.

Uzumi had spent her time by getting a feel for the entire village and it's history.

Toto had decided to prank the entire village by leaving a steaming bowl of Ichiraku Ramen in every ninja home undetected. He was even thoughtful enough to leave it in a thermos so it wouldn't get cold. He was mulling over the idea of building an underground cavern behind the Hokage Faces, similar to Uzumi's recent ROOT find.

Naruto noted this when he came across it and gave Toto the mental nod to start by making and dispelling a clone. It wouldn't take long to begin, as there was a fairly easy tunneling jutsu they could use, but it would take a while to fill out and make habitable. Rukona and Jack were still working behind the Hokage Faces, as usual.

Naruto sighed as he went over the rest of the clones' progress and goals. He came across an important message from Jack. Jack suggested sending a clone to go to the academy while the original focused on his physical training all day. He reasoned that chakra was created by physical and spiritual energy, with body strength fueling the former, and knowledge and concentration fueled the latter. With Sunny and Makima doing all of the studying, Naruto's previously abysmal spiritual energy was soaring to new heights, as was his chakra control, but his physical abilities stayed where they were. Naruto needed to train constantly to reach the same levels bodily as he was developing mentally, and he simply didn't have the time to go to school if he wanted to improve.

If he concentrated only on physical work, with his incredible regeneration rates, he could develop his muscles much faster than anyone else in the world. Naruto smiled and took Jack's suggestion, making a clone to go to school. He walked to the market to buy soldier pills, knowing that the constant workouts and regeneration would sap his energy as it developed him physically.

Naruto -or rather his clone- met a flushed Hinata outside his apartment building. Her grin split her face ear to ear. Naruto chuckled at her as he pulled her into a hug. "I see you liked my morning message?"

"Yes. When I woke up, I didn't think yesterday happened. It was a nice reminder." Hinata walked with him as they picked their way towards the academy. Naruto laughed softly.

"I'm glad. Hey, I've got some good news for you."

"Really? What could be better than this?"

Naruto blushed in spite of himself. He was not used to having people think of him highly. "Well...I talked to the Hokage... And..." Hinata perked up, staring at him for the umpteenth time. "I managed to convince him that being on your team might be a good idea."

Hinata's eyes lit up like the sun. "Really? How did you do it? How did you know...?"

Naruto smirked playfully. "I know a lot of things, and a lot of people," He replied, purposely mysterious. "More importantly, isn't that great? Plus, I won't be with Sasuke...And Shino doesn't seem like a bad guy, either."

Hinaa beamed at him. "We'll see, Naruto."

The two were talking quietly to each other when they walked into the academy classroom. Few students noted their simultaneous arrival, their postures, their ease, as they walked together to the back row of the classroom. Shikamaru opened his mouth in protest at his presence, but Naruto just rolled his eyes and pointed at his headband on his forehead. Shikamaru took it to mean that he had managed to pass his test. He sat back down and put his head on his arms. As the chatting pair sat down, Naruto kept half of his attention on Hinata and used the other half to sweep the room critically.

Wow...I've got to give Uzumi credit, I have character profiles for every one of these kids. His

eyes fell on a student. _'Nara Shikamaru. Son of Shikaku, clan heir of the illustrious shadow Nara clan. Lazy, unmotivated, but highly intelligent and powerful when putting forth the effort. Akimochi Chouji, son of Chouza_._A__lso clan heir of the Akinichi clan. A big eater, runs in the family. Rather meek. Scary when provoked, loyal to his friends. Those two are childhood friends, no doubt on account of the closeness of their families. Inuzuka Kiba, brother of Hana,_ _son of Tsume. Loud, brash, and arrogant, but very loyal to his family. I've got no interest in them though, just him. _

He sighed as Ino and Sakura fought into the room._ 'Haruno Sakura. Civilian parents, Sasuke's number one fangirl. Most likely only became a ninja to get closer to him. Given what Uzumi saw of her conversation with her parents, they expect her to settle down and get married quickly after being done with this 'ninja nonsense'. As if. _

However...

He raised an eyebrow as Ino sat down, disgruntled, next to an annoyed Sasuke. _Yamanaka Ino. Daughter of Inoichi, clan heir of the mind jutsu and interrogation-specialized Yamamaka clan. Childhood acquaintances with Chouji and Shikamaru, of course. Family owns a flower shop, where she works. Also a Sasuke fangirl, slightly more realistic about it... There's also Aburame Shino, clan heir and son of Aburame Shibi. Calm, cool, stoic and logical- like his family. And last but not least...Uchiha Sasuke. Last remaining Uchiha, genius rookie of the year, but looking at his demeanor it's probably all to get the hated Itachi...although something doesn't add up, in his childhood's case..._

Naruto's silent musings were interrupted by Iruka's scoldings- he was trying hard to capture the class' attention but nobody was listening. Naruto ignored him as he mentally sorted all the people he went over as "interesting" or "uninteresting". He'd ignore the latter, and think up of most-likely-clone-related plans for the former. He'd never had any real time to make friends before, but now that he had shadow clones, he had almost limitless "time".

"Team 7!" Naruto looked up. "Uzumaki Naruto...Hyuuga Hinata..." Hinata laughed quietly and poked Naruto's arm. She smiled and nodded happily.

"...and Uchiha Sasuke."

"WHAT?" Naruto stood up suddenly, knocking over his chair and drawing shocked looks from a few of his fellow classmates. Hinata looked worried.

"You heard me, Naruto. Sit down." Iruka took the opportunity to bring up a lesson. "Now, even though some of you may protest the decisions made for your teams, understand that the final choice lies with the Hokage, who has done a thorough examination of your teammates' strengths and weaknesses..."

Naruto stopped listening entirely.

The rest of the teams got called without incident. Sakura almost broke down in theatrical tears because she ended up with "Dog-Breath" and "Creepy-Crawly", but Naruto wasn't listening to her.

He was busy formulating a plan for Sasuke...


	6. Defeat Means Friendship

**-CHAPTER 6-**

Uchiha Sasuke swiftly made his way out of the room when Iruka-Sensei dismissed them for lunch. He had to this time, otherwise Ino and Sakura would start fighting over him again. Like he cared. He gritted his teeth imperceptibly as he strode purposefully out of the building. They were so annoying!

He'd been relieved when the both of them hadn't been on his team. Immensely relieved. Ino acted like he liked her back, and Sakura was booksmart, but didn't know the first thing about being a ninja. Both were just weaklings. Dead weights.

Not only that, Hinata was on his team, too. Sasuke had grudging respect for her because she wasn't obsessed with him and she was the only one who could even begin to keep up with him in taijutsu spars. That, all things considered, was good.

But Naruto. _Naruto_. Loud, weak, dead last _Naruto_ was on his team. He couldn't believe it. It was an outrage. Who in their right mind would put him with Sasuke?

In the dire hopes that no one would find him as he contemplated his inconvenient situation, Sasuke ate in an empty, reclusive building next to a window. He munched on his onigiri and was still silently cursing his luck when-

"Uchiha. Sasuke." he turned around. Just outside his window, there was a girl standing with long, shining blond hair and a white jumpsuit. She had white goggles on her forehead, and a pretty face, but that's not the first thing Sasuke noticed. The first thing he noticed were her eyes. Deep blue, wild, determined, confident eyes that he'd never seen on a kunochi his age. They were the eyes of a confident fighter, more importantly a confident, competent person.

"...So what if I am?" Sasuke replied, finishing up his lunch.

Shikamaru and Ino had been arguing about being on the same team with Chouji staying uninvolved when Shikamaru noticed Sasuke and the blonde who was talking to him. This completely diverted his attention, as it was the first time he'd ever seen Sasuke say more than two words to a girl other than "You're" and "Annoying". As Ino stopped arguing to watch this exchange, a familiar boy in orange dropped down next to Shikamaru.

"Hey, guys." Naruto greeted them casually. Shikamaru blinked and Ino was about to pitch a fit when he interrupted her. "Hey, Ino-san. You think Sasuke's the best ninja our age, right?" Ino paused for a moment before nodding fervently. "Well, I'm about to prove you wrong. How about, if I'm right, and Sasuke's not all that special, you go on a date with me tonight. And if you're right, I'll be your slave and do anything you want me to for a week. Deal?"

Ino blushed with an exasperated look on her face. "What? Gross, I'd never go on a date with you!"

Naruto opened his mouth in mock surprise and disappointment. "Aww! And here I thought you had faith in your beloved..."

Ino blushed even harder before glaring. "Fine! But don't go back on it when you lose!"

Naruto smirked as he pointed down to Sasuke and his mysterious visitor, who were dropping into taijutsu stances on the siding of the building. "Right back at ya."

Luna smirked at the confirmation of her target. _'This is gonna be fun...'_

Even as she was thinking that, in the back of her mind were all the many reasons why this needed to happen. Naruto could read the dynamics between Sasuke and everyone else well enough to know that this needed to happen, and since Uzumi broke into the Hokage records, he knew why.

"My theory is this: you won't give the time of day to anyone who can't either beat your ass or make you stronger."

Sasuke almost blinked. "Good theory."

"So, in exchange for some of your time, I'm going to beat your ass, and maybe even make you stronger later." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes, I mean beat your ass now. What, you too high and mighty to fight a pretty little girl?"

His eyes narrowed. "Back up." he said, as he swung out of the window while she complied. He dropped into the basic Uchiha taijutsu stance. He could humor her for a while, after all. "Come."

Luna grinned, dropping into an odd fighting stance herself. "That's what I like to hear." she said, and dashed at him.

Sasuke was surprised at, but not put off by her speed as she ran towards him in a flurry of punches he could barely block. He still managed it before countering one of them with a kick, which she ducked under and tried to sweep him off his exposed foot. Sasuke let her sweep him off his feet before catching himself with his hands and kicking with his still twisting legs, which Luna blocked with an arm and tried to kick low to his exposed face. Sasuke twisted his hips to avoid the kick and turn himself rightside up, and they were at it again.

Their fighting speed and skill were actually that of a low Chunin, something not lost on their astounded observers. Sasuke needed every ounce of his concentration just to keep up and not fall off the building. Finally, he blocked a punch that came almost simultaneously as a roundhouse kick with the opposite leg, and got kicked in the face. Luna didn't let up and hit him with a back kick to the stomach, then turned for a jumping kick to the face as he was blown backwards.

Sasuke glared at her as he got up and made some quick hand signs. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" he yelled and blew a surprisingly large fireball at her.

Luna whistled at him before winking, and then ran alongside the adjacent wall to jump over it. She jumped in an arc towards her opponent so that she was directly above Sasuke and upsidedown when she made one hand sign and yelled "Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

Sasuke was crushed to the siding by the pressure of the wind jutsu and was panting heavily when Luna hit the ground next to him and whipped out a kunai to press to his neck. He looked up at her, angry more at himself than her for being defeated, and Luna smiled smugly at him. She took a moment for him to be sure he's lost before putting away the weapon and extending a hand in aid.

"My name is Luna. I am strong, and will only get stronger as time goes on. You can either hate me for being stronger than you now and throw yourself into more of the same training, or you can understand that I can help you get stronger and train with me instead. I'll tell you now, the first is a waste of time. You've been doing good on your own, for a while, but training is always more effective with two people."

Sasuke looked at her face, her eyes, and wondered where she'd gotten them from. It took him a full ten seconds, but when he took her hand, she smiled brightly.

Naruto was laughing openly while Team 10 looked on in both shock and horror. He raised an eyebrow at a simultaneously baffled and reluctant looking Ino. "So, I'll see you tonight?"

Ino glared at him. Obviously, he'd planned this. When Ino took the bet, she thought Naruto would be fighting him personally. Little did she know that whether it was Naruto or Luna, it wouldn't have made much of a difference. "Fine."

He gave her an obnoxious thumbs up sign while preparing to jump away. "Wait." she said. Naruto froze. "Where and at what time?"

Naruto blinked. "Ichiraku Ramen at 7." He said slowly, surprised that she'd wanted details at all. He then disappeared in an ostentatious cloud of smoke. Shikamaru looked at Ino curiously as her face scrunched up in thought.

Hinata and Naruto were sparring in the classroom while Sasuke was sitting in meditative concentration. The rest of the teams had been assigned their Jonin, but their teacher was exceptionally late. Naruto, not ever wanting to waste valuable time, offered Hinata to spar with him, which she readily agreed to. They'd been going at it with minimal breaks for hours now. Hinata was fatigued while Naruto was only slightly winded, but he slowed down slightly so she could keep up with him. Hinata had no idea how he was keeping up with her, completely oblivious to his adjustable weights and the various clones working on several styles of taijutsu as they spoke. Sasuke, partly because of his lunchtime encounter and partly because of Naruto's enthusiasm, decided to meditate. He could've challenged Naruto, but had enough to worry about is it was. The three were doing this when a tall, gray haired ninja with his headband over his left eye walked into the room. They stopped what they were doing to look at him quietly, Hinata panting and Naruto breathing slowly..

"My first impression of you guys is...what hard workers! Meet me on the roof." He said, and stepped out of the room.

On the roof, Kakashi was leaning on the rail and the Genin were on the steps. Sasuke was looking at him seriously on the left, while Naruto was in the middle with Hinata cuddled up closely next to him. Kakashi gave them an admonishing look and Hinata shrank into Naruto as he raised an eyebrow at his supposed sensei. Kakashi sighed. "All right, why don't you all introduce ourselves." He pointed to Sasuke. "You, start."

Sasuke adopted his signature thinking pose. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like...much of anything, and I dislike a lot of things. My only hobby is training, and my goal is to kill a certain man..." Kakashi blinked slowly at him before turning his gaze to Hinata.

"Ah, um...My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I like gardening and Naruto...I dislike unkind people. My hobbies are training and gardening, and my dream is to become strong enough to support Naruto's dream." Hinata said quicker than usual. Kakashi nodded to her and then pointed at Naruto.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes are Ramen, Hinata, and doing things with myself." Kakashi blinked. "I dislike dishonest people, mean people, and my goal is to bring peace to the shinobi world." Kakashi's eye widened.

"...Bring peace to the shinobi world?"

Naruto gave a small smile. "The shinobi of this world have been fighting and killing for many a generation. The five great nations...and all of the nations around them, do nothing but battle, make temporary peace, then battle again. I would like to stop the violence. I'd like to wage a war against war itself, to bring collective unity. There is too much death and destruction in this world...but you would know that better than anyone, wouldn't you, Hatake Kakashi?"

The cool Jonin tilted his head. "...So you know me." It wasn't a question.

Naruto gave a bemused smile. "Know you? Hatake Kakashi, son of the White Fang Hatake Sakumo, student of the Fourth's, Genin at 5, Chunin at 6, Jonin at 13 and ANBU captain quickly afterwards. A "no casualty" record as an ANBU captain, known to enemies as "The Copy Ninja" and/or "Sharingan Kakashi" for your rarely used left eye. A leader for the Third Shinobi War, now perhaps...fourth in line for the Hokage's spot, although soon you'll be fifth." He smirked. "If you intend to actually teach us all, understandable if you don't, since you've never taken a Genin team, I couldn't ask for a better teacher or ninja."

Kakashi looked shocked at his collection of information, and Sasuke was giving Kakashi a troubled, suspicious look. Naruto noticed this, and relieved him of it. "Don't worry, Sasuke. He's not a Uchiha, but he got his eye as a...gift." Sasuke looked between Naruto and Kakashi as the latter glared at the former openly.

"How do you...You shouldn't know any of that..."

Naruto shrugged. "If you'd stolen it from a Uchiha, Konoha and the remains of the Uchiha clan wouldn't allow you to walk around in broad daylight." Naruto did not mention the fact that he knew the story from mission reports Uzumi read about him, because he was certain that would only attract Kakashi's ire.

Kakashi adjusted his headband to look at Naruto, making sure it was him, before putting it back and clapping his hands together. "Ok! That's enough of that. Our duties start tomorrow. We'll be having survival training. It's an exam that has a 66% fail rate, and I'll be your opponent. If you fail the test, you'll be sent back to the academy. Show up at the designated training ground at 5 A.M. sharp, and bring your ninja gear." He was about to leave when he turned back around with an intimidating face. "Oh, and don't eat breakfast tomorrow. You'll puke." With that and an eye smile, he disappeared.

Sasuke was about to leave when Naruto stopped him. "Sasuke, wait." Sasuke turned around with an annoyed look on his face. "Eat tomorrow. There is no reason taking a test on an empty stomach is a good idea. Also, show up at 8. Kakashi is periodically late, today was just the first time of many for us, and he'll show up late again, probably around eleven." Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him for a second before jumping away, not revealing whether or not he was going to take his advice.

Naruto sighed as Hinata looked up at him curiously from the steps. "Was all of that stuff true, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded, almost dejectedly. "Every word. I just hope he listens to me. Not only that..." He scrunched up his face in a way that signified he was thinking. "Most of the Genin tests have to do with teamwork. You and I will be fine, we like each other, but Sasuke...he doesn't think he needs anyone but himself to accomplish his goals...Fortunately, someone's doing something about that."

Hinata blinked curiously. "Someone?"

Naruto grinned. "Ah, that's right, you've yet to meet my friends. Let me show you..."

Naruto and Hinata spent the rest of the day visiting each one of the prominent clones and checking up on them. Hinata met everyone save for Luna and Toto, Luna because she was busy with Sasuke (although she did meet a clone of Luna's) and Toto because he wasn't exactly the social type.

Makima had made the most useful progress, expanding exponentially on the idea of other things clones can do. He'd modified the Yamanaka Clan Telepathy technique to something the clones could all use and share vasts amounts of information with each other at negligible chakra cost. After developing and using many possible variations of shadow clones, his remaining two goals were making shadow clones that can produce their own chakra and a shadow clone with a real body. He already figured out a funny way to modify the jutsu so that clones absorbed hits instead of dispelling when they took them, but it was hard to create. It involved cutting down the chakra constructs into small, tiny parts instead of one large construct so the entire thing could regenerate instead of getting dispelled immediately. Whether Makima's advancements could be attributed to his raw creative talent or his copious use of shadow clones for research and dangerous testing, nobody knew. Not even him.

Sunny was elated with all the extra research the Namikaze estate had given them, as it made her theorize using chakra to animate inanimate objects and various other uses. It also gave her more material, as her and her clones were quickly burning through the shinobi library.

Toto was still constructing the underground cavern. The village had actually been in an uproar for the entire day, as it was theorized that whoever placed all of that ramen overnight could've potentially murdered everyone in the village on their own. Ninja analysts were certain that it was impossible with one person, so ANBU were on the lookout for a group with malicious intents and threats. Barring that, Ichiraku ramen saw a huge influx of business from that day forward.

Jack spent the entire day making sure the clones were always working on something, or rather, trying to get the clones to work on _everything, _while he looked over the original Naruto's body training. He also made Naruto review the katas his clones had learned, because knowing them mentally is not the same as knowing how it feels when he performed it directly. It didn't take long for him to pick up anything physical his clones learned, especially hand seals, and he increased his weights frequently throughout the day, as his muscles never stayed sore for very long.

Rukona spent the entire day devising plans and ideas for the uses of everything Makima was inventing and Jack was learning. It was a lot of work, something she never failed to remind Naruto, as their learning rate was off the charts. Still, her and her small team of clones were able to devise strategies and formations that would make most Jonin "piss themselves in fear".

Uzumi was getting steadily more and more worried about the existence of Danzo as she reviewed reams of information from Naruto's very own couch. It worried her, especially when she found out about Danzo's attempts to either kill Naruto or make him into a human weapon. He was definitely not on the right side of the moral horizon.

The problem was, she didn't know how to approach the problem. Sure, she could assassinate him at one point or another, but that would only put him and ROOT out of action and leave Konoha wondering who's holding the dripping blade. No matter how much Sarutobi knows about Danzo and wants him out, he'd never advocate killing the man. Would he?

She narrowed her eyes slightly in suspicion of Konoha's entire upper echelon. The clone that Naruto had sent to school had been curious about Sasuke and had made a clone to pass on the message of further examination of the Uchiha Massacre. Uzumi had personally broken into the room where they kept the records of before, during, and after that incident, and she didn't like what she found.

The Uchiha had been planning a coup. They'd been planning to usurp the authority of the Hokage, and the higher up ninja knew it. She knew from history of the rivalry between the Senju and the Uchiha, but she was surprised to learn that that rivalry continued with Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara. But something didn't make sense. There was an important detail left out of the reports: Who was giving them? It was common for A and S-ranked documents to not have a sender or receiver, but

Uzumi knew the only person who could've seen these documents were the Hokage and Danzo, and perhaps the Hokage's two advisors, Koharu and Homura. But what didn't make sense is that the reports of a coup being planned got worse and worse, with no decisions about it being made, and then suddenly Itachi kills them all in the dead of night.

And that was another thing. Itachi _single-handedly _wiping out the _entire _Uchiha clan in _one night_? The boy was a genius, yes, but one does not wipe out arguably the strongest clan in the five great nations by simply being a genius! They weren't some random ninja, or a random family, they were a well-trained, long-standing _family of ninjas. _No matter how much surprise Itachi had, it would've been moot after the first several kills. No, he had to have had help.

But who? And why would Konoha leave such important details out of their reports?

Uzumi visibly sighed. One of these days, she was going to personally confront the Hokage with all of these questions. Maybe once Naruto applies to be in ANBU. Once they're more used to his abilities. She closed her eyes and continued reviewing the constant influx of information coming from her spread out clones.

Luna spent the entire afternoon with Sasuke. This was much easier than it sounded. Sasuke immediately went to the training ground they agreed to meet at after he was done meeting with Kakashi. They then sparred repeatedly, Luna pointing out mistakes in his form (Sunny and Jack had both reviewed the basic Uchiha Taijutsu that could surprisingly be found in the locked scroll room) and Sasuke getting pissed off because of it. Afterwards, when the sun went down, Luna gave him a list of things to study. It was easier to think of a list for Sasuke to study than studying everything she and her clones were going to, anyway. On it was kenjutsu, lightning chakra manipulation, and various other things she knew he'd be interested in. They were still talking animatedly about the potential uses of such techniques while she led him into Naruto's fully renovated apartment building.


End file.
